Make-up!
by ZigzagoonCutie
Summary: Proton plays a prank on Petrel, and so he and Archer get Proton back.


**A/N: I wrote this for my creative writing final. :)**

The one thing that Petrel was proud of is his make-up skills. He, unlike most men his age, had grown up  
learning how to apply make-up and use it to create a variety of effects. As a child, his mother had taught him to put on her make-up for her because she was lazy and didn't want to bother with it. After that, he became very interested in all of the things make-up could do—it could make you look exactly like another person. That was Petrel's specialty.

He removed crimson liquid eye-liner he had applied to his arm. He had gone on an undercover mission today, and the man he was impersonating, the CEO of a very important company, had gotten a "bloody cut" on the right side of his arm. The make-up he applied had made the cut look very realistic, but it was very difficult to get off. No matter how much of his diluted make-up remover solution he applied, he could not get it off. With a sigh, Petrel pulled out a cotton swab and dipped it into his expensive make-up remover. He didn't like to use it straight out of the bottle since it cost a lot and it was very strong, but sometimes he had to. Petrel picked up the eye-liner to see what it was made out of and realized it was his expensive, almost permanent make-up. It was perfect for making cuts, because no matter how much it was cleaned, it looked like it was still bleeding, and it didn't smear, so it was perfect for rainy weather.

He finished cleaning up his make-up and smiled at his reflection in the mirror; it was nice to see his own face for once. Petrel left the bathroom, totally ready to sleep since he had been working all day, and headed down the hallway to his room. He opened the door and gasped. There were tons of cockroaches all over the floor, and they weren't the fake kind either. They were alive and _moving_ _towards him_! Petrel flew down the hallway screaming. Echoes of laughter followed him and Petrel immediately knew who to blame for the disaster—Proton.

Proton was Petrel's co-worker, and the two of them shared an apartment with Ariana and Archer, two other people who worked with them. Petrel was sure his screams had woken up the siblings, so he ran into Ariana's room, where she sat up disoriented.

"What's going on Petrel?" she asked sleepily. The man didn't answer and instead jumped up on her bed and dove under the covers. She lifted up the blanket and looked at him questioningly. Archer's form appeared at the doorway.

"What's going on?" he asked.

"P-proton put cockroaches in my room!" Petrel shrieked. Archer growled, and whirled around to face said tealette.

"Proton," he growled out. The man didn't have the shame to look sheepish at all, and he instead looked boldly at Archer.

"What, I thought it would be funny, and it was." He took this moment to hold up a camera, "You should've seen his face, it was hilarious!" Archer pinched the bridge of his nose.

"So you had to cheat me out of some of _my_ sleep to play this _hilarious_ prank on Petrel?" Archer asked, getting angry.

"Ooh, he is so pissed!" Ariana whispered to Petrel, and the two of them giggled. Whenever Archer got angry, he got flustered and often stumbled over his words.

"Yeah, I guess," Proton shrugged, looking at Archer with disinterest. This only served to make him angrier.

"Y-you ungrateful little—I could have you fired—you little—don't you have any shame!?" Archer screeched. Proton just rolled his eyes.

"Look Archer, I'm going to bed, I'll see you in the morning."

"Don't you dare! I swear if you—get back here!" Archer yelled at the retreating form of Proton. A second later, he stomped over to Ariana's bed seething. "We have to get back at that brat. Teach him not to be so, so, ugh!" Archer laid back on his sister's bed and looked at her. "Seriously, these pranks have gotten annoying."

Petrel thought they were kind of cute, except when he was the target of the pranks, which seemed increasingly more common recently. He thought about a way to get his best friend back, and suddenly thought of something. Petrel sat up quickly, surprising Archer and Ariana.

"Are you okay?" Ariana asked worriedly. "If you don't want to go back to my room, you can sleep with me."

"I got the perfect idea!"

"The perfect idea for what?" Ariana asked curiously. Later she would regret the decision to humor Petrel.

"The perfect idea to get him back!" After Petrel spoke, Archer smiled evilly.

"Please enlighten us," Archer said, and so Petrel did. As Petrel continued talking, Archer threw in suggestions and comments, while Ariana sat there shaking her head. Boys were so silly sometimes.

XxX

The next morning, Proton awoke happily. He had a good night's sleep after the entertainment of Petrel freaking out and Archer getting angry. He yawned and headed to the bathroom to get ready for work. He had to be in his office in forty minutes—plenty of time to shower and eat breakfast. When he got into his shared bathroom, he had to move all of Petrel's bottles and tubes of make-up. The idea to mix them came into Proton's mind, but he dismissed it quickly. He knew he had messed with Petrel a lot recently, and the man would probably be thinking of ways to get him back.

Proton looked into the mirror and screamed a shrill, girly scream. He backed up from the counter. Four short knocks sounded on the door, but Proton ignored them and touched his face, wondering if what he saw in the mirror was really him or not.

"This can't be happening! My mom's dead, there is no way," Proton kept muttering to himself, trying to reassure himself that it was all just same crazy dream.

"Proton, are you okay in there?" Archer asked. Proton knew if he didn't answer, Archer would come in, and that is the last thing he wanted.

"Yes!" Proton called out. Okay, he sounded like himself, that's good. Now all he had to do was find a way to make his face look like his own face and not his mom's… _'Petrel's make-up!" _Proton thought suddenly. Sure he might not really know how to use—wait. Proton felt so stupid. This was just some silly prank Petrel was playing on him. He picked up Petrel's bottle of make-up remover that he had seen him use many times to easily get the make-up off, and pulled out a cotton swab. He dipped it into the solution and touched the dap cloth to his face and scrubbed hard.

_'There, now everything should be all good!'_ Proton thought to himself, looking at his reflection in the mirror. He groaned in horror when he realized that it had not changed anything. It wasn't make-up. Something else must have happened. How could he possibly be in the body of his mother? She was dead! More knocking sounded on the door, and this time Petrel's voice sounded.

"Proton, are you okay? You've been in there awhile. We're all worried about you!"

"I'm fine, I'm just… uh, trying to find my contact!" Proton mentally praised himself for the good lie.

"Oh… Well, I'll come in and help you. I've a good eye for finding contacts!"

"Ah, no, that's okay, you might step on it!"

"Nonsense!" The door knob turned, and Proton let out a small cry.

"No! Seriously, don't come in! I'm naked!" Proton yelled out.

"Not like I haven't seen that before. We're both guys!"

"Just give me like five minutes!" Proton looked around the bathroom for a possible escape route and found the bathroom window. He rushed over and tried to pry it open, but it wouldn't budge. _'There has got to be someway to reverse this!'_ Proton thought. _'I can't go into work like this! I can't even come out of the bathroom like this!'_

"Hey, I got the key," Proton heard Archer say outside the bathroom door.

"Seriously guys, don't come in, I'm just about to get in the shower." Proton tugged at the dress his mom had been buried in; somewhat disturbed that he was now wearing it, and pulled off his clothes and jumped in the shower. That's when he realized he couldn't be his mom… he was clearly male.

_'This must be a prank, but how did they do it?'_ Proton asked himself. He had always thought he was the smartest one of the group, but then why couldn't he figure this out. He had no time to think, because the door swung open.

"Proton?" Archer asked questioningly, "Why were you wearing a dress?"

"It must be Ariana's!" Proton said quickly, "She must have left it in here." The two guys didn't press the matter, and Proton was glad for that. _'Maybe my eyes were playing tricks on me. Maybe I didn't really look like my mom.'_ Proton calmed down a little and finished his shower in relative peace. He turned off the water and opened the curtain to grab his towel. He wrapped around his body and shut the curtain behind him so it could dry. He turned around to grab his clothes, but bumped into something. Looking up, Proton saw Archer standing there, looking at him weird.

"Who are you?" Proton cursed his luck, and looked into the mirror, and upon seeing his mother's face groaned. "Proton?" Archer asked. Proton nodded and proceeded to tell him and Petrel of his hectic morning. By the time he finished, Petrel and Archer couldn't hold back their smiles.

"What's so great about this!?" Proton screeched.

"Well I just found out how well my make-up skills can really fool a person!" Petrel said.

"But it's not your make-up; I tried using that cleaner stuff!" Proton protested, thoroughly confused.

"Yes, but it is waterproof, and you need something stronger to take it off," Petrel said, "The diluted cleaner won't do anything." Proton growled. They had tricked him!

"You jerks!" he screamed.

"Maybe it will teach you not to play pranks on people," Archer said. Now it was Proton's turn to smirk.

"Oh, but now I know your secrets!" Archer and Petrel scowled. And sure enough, next time they tried to prank him, they utterly failed.


End file.
